CARYOPHYLLACEvE loi 



10 nerves ; teeth ovate, obtuse. Petals obovate, lanceolate, rose- 

 coloured, slightly emarginate. 



Rocks and pastures in the Alps ; common, 5000-11,000 feet. 

 May to July. 



Distribution. — Carpathians, Eastern, Central, and Western Alps ; 

 Pyrenees, British Isles, Arctic Europe, Asia and America ; Iceland, 

 Spitzbergen. Rocky Mountains of Canada. 



There are two varieties which grow in the Alpine zone only : 



Var. exscafa DC, a stemless, small form with lighter pink flowers, 

 and Var. elongata DC, a rare form with longer stems than in the 

 type, larger flowers, and a looser habit. 



Though a shy bloomer in this country, Silene acaulis is a very 

 useful rockery plant. It should have plenty of sun, and a poor, 

 gritty soil, or it will make too much soft green growth, which gets 

 cut off in winter. It may be wedged between stones in crevices of 

 rock. 



Silene inflata Smith (S. Cucubalus Wibel.). Bladder Campion. 

 (Plate VIII.) 



Loosely branched at the base, with ascending or erect stems a foot 

 or more long, of a glaucous green, and usually glabrous. Leaves 

 ovate, oblong, or rarely nearly linear, and usually pointed. Flowers 

 few, white, or pinkish in the mountains, often slightly drooping, 

 in loose terminal panicles. Calyx becoming at length globular, 

 inflated, and much veined. Petals deeply 2-cleft. A variable species, 

 especially in the mountains, where it sometimes assumes a pinkish 

 tinge, as in the plate. 



Fields, waste places, and Alpine pastures ; very common. April 

 to August. 



Distribution. — All Europe, Western and Central Asia, Northern 

 Africa, N. America. British. 



In Mr. F. N. Williams' European Varieties of Silene inflata^ he 

 describes the var. alpina, Mert. and Koch, and mentions that it 

 was gathered by the present writer on the Col du Galibier in Dau- 

 phiny at 2440 m., " the greatest altitude hitherto recorded for the 

 plant." It was however, recorded at 3000 m. on the Corner Grat,^ 

 by Heer. 



Silene EUzahethce Jan. 



Rootstock densely covered with leaves ; stem simple, ascending, 

 3-6 inches high, finely glandular, hairy above. Root-leaves lan- 

 ceolate, acute, narrowed at the base ; stem-leaves ovate-lanceolate. 

 Flowers 1-3, terminal, very large and handsome, bright pink ; 

 lamina of petals obcordate, fan-shaped, cut and toothed. Calyx 

 5-cleft. 



'In Bulletin de V Herbhr Boissier (1908). 



^ Professor Lino Vaccari, La Flora Nvvale del Monte Rosa (191 1), p. 14. 



